12 August 2007

Annie Machon has written in the Daily Mail newspaper (11 August 2007) about the damage MI5 has inflicted on David Shayler, as punishment for him whistle blowing on them in the 1990s. What she has revealed shows the extraordinary lengths MI5 will go to in abusing the powers of the State to suppress the truth, and to protect their own unmerited reputation.

Annie Machon is only confirming what many of us have experienced over a long period of time: MI5 is a very incompetent organisation. In order to protect itself against internal whistleblowers, and attacks from others outside the Secret State, MI5 will stop at nothing in going on the offensive. The policy seems to be to attack any individual who has identified the Secret Service’s weaknesses, resulting in those deficiencies being allowed to fester away indefinitely. Like the school bully, MI5 suffers from a flawed corporate personality - and the last thing such bullies want is to have their inadequacies exposed in public.

MI5 cannot deal with espionage and terrorism in the UK; that fact has been clearly demonstrated over the decades. Most of the real espionage cases over the years have been uncovered by the incompetence of the spies, or by some good luck on the part of MI5. However, MI5 has now taken to manufacturing alleged spies in order to enhance its own track record; as in my case, and those of Rafael Juan Bravo and Ian Parr - all of us were framed for dealing with non-existent “Russians” (in reality MI5 officers). Now we have the case of Corporal Daniel James, who is being accused of passing British “secrets” to “Iranians”, when no spying was actually going on.

MI5’s record on terrorism is no better; the fact that they failed to stop the 2005 bombings in London speaks for itself. They failed to stop the 1994 bombing of the Israeli embassy in London, and then covered up the facts by framing two innocent Palestinians, Samar Alami and Jawad Botmeh, who were then used as convenient scapegoats for that crime. MI5 even betray their own agents, as in the case of Bisher Al-Rawi, who ended up spending four-and-a-half years locked up without charge in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Not surprisingly, MI5 finds it easier to spy on soft targets, like British politicians and trade unionists, and they see nothing wrong with the illegal phone-tapping of anybody they feel could be a threat to the Security Service or the British Establishment.

Saving those in power from embarrassment appears to be a priority in MI5’s policies, such as the denial that MI5 had anything to do with the attempted assassination of Colonel Gaddafi of Libya. Heaven forbid that organisations like MI5 should be accountable to the public or subject to democratic control - at least I cannot see the new boss man Jonathan Evans demanding tighter controls.

So, just what is all the secrecy surrounding MI5 really for? Annie Machon gives the true reason why these “secrets” are only for the few: ‘The British Establishment is ruthless in protecting its own interests rather than those of our country.’